Digital crime on the increase, police chief tells UEL conference

EU Cybersecurity month event held at UEL

A Metropolitan Police digital forensics chief told a conference at the University of East London (UEL) that 50 per cent of all reported crime now involved some form of digital device.

He added that 48 per cent of the investigations carried out by the Met Police digital forensic team resulted in disruption to criminal networks.

Mark Stokes, head of the Metropolitan Police Cyber, Digital, and Communications Forensic Unit, was addressing an audience of UEL computer science students and professionals at the Infosec Week conference hosted by UEL and ShadowSEC.

He said, “I welcome the opportunity to speak at the University of East London on such an important and cutting-edge topic as digital forensics. It’s a valuable opportunity to share the latest developments with students and fellow professionals in the field.

“The London Metropolitan Police Service is doing crucial work in this area, meaning conferences like these are a good way of informing people about how we’re protecting them and catching criminals.”

He was joined by senior staff from Amazon, 02-Telefornica, and the Information Commissioner’s Office, who spoke at the event marking the EU’s cybersecurity month.

UEL conference organiser, Dr Ameer Al-Nemrat, who is an expert in information security and computer forensics at UEL’s School of Architecture, Computing, and Engineering, said, “I’m pleased with the excellent range of expert speakers we’ve been able to offer to professionals and students at our conference.

“The rapid advances in cybercrime and security mean we need to keep ourselves, our students and the public up-to-date.

“I’m confident that this event has further strengthened UEL’s links with leading figures and organisations in the computer sciences sector, which will in turn be of benefit to our students.”